The Efficacy of the English Longbow: A Reply to Kelly DeVries

Battle of Agincourt

The Efficacy of the English Longbow: A Reply to Kelly DeVries By Clifford Rogers War in History, Vol.5:2 (1998) Introduction:Every profession needs its gadflies: men and women who shake our complacency and force us to re-examine assumptions we have rarely if ever questioned before. Sometimes revisionists lead us, as the word itself suggests, to see […]

French Noble Archers from the lists of those appearing for royal musters from about 1420 to 1560

After the battle Roosebeke, Charles VI returns to Paris at the head of his army

French Noble Archers from the lists of those appearing for royal musters from about 1420 to 1560 By James Prescott Published Online, 2011 Introduction: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether, and to what extent, French nobles had the bow as their primary military weapon. This is not about a noble using a […]

Birgitta of Sweden and the Divine Mysteries of Motherhood

Birgitta of Sweden and the Divine Mysteries of Motherhood Stjerna, Kirsi Feminist Forum, 24, no. 1 (1997) Abstract St. Birgitta of Sweden is most widely known as the founder of her order Regula Sanctissimi Saluatoris and as the “author” of the Revelaciones S. Birgittae, the collection of her 700 revelations. Born in 1303 to one […]

The Treaty of Windsor (1386) in a European context

Marriage of John I, King of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster.

In the early evening of Monday 14 August 1385, between 6 and 7 p.m., a crushing defeat was inflicted by a Portuguese army on a numerically far superior and better-equipped Castilian force.

Sir John Hawkwood: Story of a Condottiere

Engraving representing John Hawkwood

Sir John Hawkwood: Story of a Condottiere By John Temple-Leader and Giuseppe Marcotti (London, 1889) Chapter 1: On the left bank of the little river Colne in Essex, in the parish of Sible Hedingham not far from the ancient city of Colchester, there still exists an old house and estate named Hawkwood manor, – once […]

War financing in the late-Medieval Crown of Aragon

War financing in the late-Medieval Crown of Aragon Kagay, Donald J. (Albany State University) The Journal of Medieval Military History, Volume 6 (2008) Introduction: Medieval soldiers would agree wholeheartedly with the political maxim which had grown hackneyed by the time of the Renaissance in its assertion that “money constitutes the sinews of war.” Medieval sovereigns […]

The Use of Gunpowder Weaponry by and Against Joan of Arc During the Hundred Years War

This article explores the possibility of a link between Joan of Arc and evolution of gunpowder weaponry during the Hundred Years War, a thesis for which there is some evidence.

Jeanne d’Arc: Morale, Spiritual Authority, and Gunpowder

Joan of Arc

Few people in history have had more written about them than Jeanne d’Arc. This young woman has been claimed by French Nationalists, the Catholic church, and radical feminists alike; she has been portrayed variously as saint, heretic, schizophrenic, war heroine, virgin, and tart.

The Military Revolutions of the Hundred Years’ War

Battle of Agincourt

The Military Revolutions of the Hundred Years’ War By Clifford J. Rogers The Journal of Military History, Vol.57 (1993) Extract: I believe, however, that the focus on the centuries after 1500 obscures the importance of the period in which the most dramatic, most truly revolutionary changes in European military affairs took place: the period, roughly, […]

The Auld Alliance (1295-1560) : Commercial Exchanges, Cultural and Intellectual Influences Between France and Scotland

Auld Alliance 1

The Auld Alliance (1295-1560) : Commercial Exchanges, Cultural and Intellectual Influences Between France and Scotland CANALLAS, MURIEL MA Thesis, UNIVERSITE DE TOULON ET DU VAR (2009) Abstract France and Scotland have always shared an obvious sense of friendship through the centuries. Few countries in history have been connected this way. One may wonder why. We can […]

How accurate were medieval chroniclers in describing warfare?

The Battle of Margate is one of the lesser-known episodes of the Hundred Years’ War, but a historian has recently analyzed this naval campaign to see how accurate the accounts of medieval chroniclers were. In his article, “Medieval Chroniclers as War Correspondents during the Hundred Years War: The Earl of Arundel’s Naval Campaign of 1387,” […]

Genre as Context in the Alliterative Morte Arthure

Genre as Context in the Alliterative Morte Arthure Whetter, K.S. Arthuriana 20.2 (2010) Abstract Genre remains an important context for teaching and understanding literature. The genre of the Alliterative Morte is epic-heroic. This genre is dominated by a focus on heroes and their concern with honor, glory and martial achievement. Such values and heroes have potentially […]

Friendly Fire: The Disastrous Politics of Friendship in the Alliterative Morte Arthure

Friendly Fire: The Disastrous Politics of Friendship in the Alliterative Morte Arthure Chism, Christine Arthuriana 20.2 (2010) Abstract This article counterposes the Alliterative Morte Arthure with the late fourteenth-century court of Richard II to explore the politics of royal friendship, patronage, and chivalric noriture, arguing that the poem responds to the contemporaneous politicization of the king’s […]

Conquest, Crusade and Pilgrimage: The Alliterative Morte Arthure in its Late Ricardian Crusading Context

Morte D'Arthur 1

Conquest, Crusade and Pilgrimage: The Alliterative Morte Arthure in its Late Ricardian Crusading Context Nievergelt, Marco Arthuriana 20.2 (2010) Abstract This article explores the poem’s problematic use of holy war rhetoric, arguing for an engagement with contemporary debates on the transformation, revival and decline of the crusading ideal within the framework of the Papal Schism […]

Three Views of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster

John of Gaunt

Three Views of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster Rocke, Sean Published Online ~ Course: British Studies (ID 382), Harlaxton College, Spring (2011) Abstract John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was a rich, powerful, and influential nobleman in the 14th century. As the son, uncle, and father of kings, Gaunt was never far from central authority. For […]

Ideals and values in Jean Froissart’s Chroniques

froissart

Froissart left a large range of writings: numerous poems, and Méliador, an Arthurian roman. However, the most widely read work is his chronicles, which amongst other things recount the events of the Hundred Years War between France and England and their respective allies, the dealings and life at the court of the Count de Foix, popular uprisings in England, Flanders and France, and the downfall of the English King, Richard II.

The Military Archery at Neville’s Cross, 1346

NevilleCross

The Military Archery at Neville’s Cross, 1346 By Robert Hardy The Battle of Neville’s Cross, 1346, edited by David Rollason and Michael Prestwich (Stamford: Shuan Tyas, 1998) Introduction: On 26 August 1346,  Edward III’s army of English men-at-arms and archers and Welsh archers and spearman crushed the vastly superior forces of Philip of France, on […]

Reforming England’s ‘harde covetouse hert’: William Worcester and the diagnosis of defeat

Hundred Years War

Reforming England’s ‘harde covetouse hert’: William Worcester and the diagnosis of defeat Halsey, Catherine York Medieval Yearbook, ISSUE No. 1, (2002) Abstract By 1450 the English had been defeated in battle at Formigny and had lost their lands in northern France, with the exception of Calais. In 1453 the Hundred Years War was effectively over. Inevitably, […]

History Great Battles Medieval – Review

great_battles_medieval 1

Great Battles Medieval allows players to re-fight the battles of the Hundred Years War, where you act as the commander. The gameplay is fairly easy to understand – you set out your army, give orders to the knights and soldiers, and watch as the fight progresses. The battle is fought in real-time, but you can […]

Of device as device: the narrative functioning of armorial displays in Froissart’s Chronicles

Joute de Vannes (1381 ap. J.-C.) dans les Chroniques de Jean Froissart - XIV -XVème siècle

Of device as device: the narrative functioning of armorial displays in Froissart’s Chronicles By M. J. Huxtable Postgraduate English: A Journal and Forum for Postgraduates in English, No.18 (2008) Introduction: In terms of socio-cultural history, the Chroniques or Chronicles of French poet and historiographer Jean Froissart (c.1337-1410) provide important access to the medieval perception of armory, […]

How Effective Was the Longbow, and What Damage Did it Do?

Clifford Rogers with Paul Crawford

A debate between Kelly DeVries and Clifford Rogers about the medieval weapon known as the longbow.

The household and military retinue of Edward the Black Prince

Edward,_The_Black_Prince

The household and military retinue of Edward the Black Prince By David S. Green PhD thesis, University of Nottingham, 1998 Abstract: The household and military retinue of Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376) was created in the early years of the Hundred Years War. This thesis examines the role which the retinue played in that conflict […]

Medieval Movie Review: Timeline

Timeline_theatrical_poster

A group of medieval archaeologists get the opportunity to go back in time to the year 1357 when a high-tech company accidentally finds a way of traveling back through time.

Ships and Fleets in Anglo-French warfare, 1337-1360

Ships and Fleets in Anglo-French warfare, 1337-1360 By Timothy J. Runyan American Neptune, v.46 (1986) Introduction: The most consuming military and naval conflict of later medieval Europe was the Hundred Years’ War. Beginning in 1337 and continuing until 1453 this struggle involved most of the states of western Europe although the principals were England and France. Edward […]

Prisoners of War in the Hundred Years War: The Golden Age of Private Ransoms

Hundred Years war

My investigations hinge around three different themes: the status of prisoners of war, the ransoming process and the networks of assistance.

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